that is the most confusing thing ever dog, how many different versions of this shit are there? three mentioned in that news piece? And I still don't know what the fuck is going on.

Fair point, although far from unique in today's gaming market -- my best guess is that publishers and/or developers seem to want to avoid potential customers who have not played the previous game(s) in the series from discounting the new game as a potential purchase on that basis, and so they ditch the numbers to make every game seem like a stand-alone product. This is even happening with games that did have numbers in the past -- "Thief: TDP", "Thief 2: TMA", "Thief: DS". The "Battlefield" series is another prime example for confusion -- you wouldn't have the foggiest what was going on there if you hadn't followed it from the start.

Anyway, IIRC the Trackmania series is as follows:

Trackmania (TM)TrackMania Power Up! (TMPU; retail expansion for TM)Trackmania Sunrise (TMS; a sequel with a new graphics engine)Trackmania Sunrise Extreme (TMSE; also a FREE upgrade from TMS)Trackmania Original (TMO; also a FREE upgrade from TM, uses TMS engine)Trackmania Nations (TMN; FREE release based around new Stadium environment)Trackmania United (TMU; combines TMO, TMS, and TMN, plus more)Trackmania Nations Forever (TMNF; FREE brand new version of TMN)Trackmania United Forever (TMUF; combines TMU and TMNF. Also a FREE upgrade from TMU)

All in all, that's a staggering number of free professional add-ons for the existing owners (I was particularly blown away by the TM -> TMO patch). I don't know what is up with the Steam pricing, but if you pirate from these guys you are absolutely retarded. If the price bothers you, just wait for it to come down again. The community is not going anywhere in the meantime, so there's no rush.

And just to reiterate for those who are confused, the evil Starforce drivers have been absent from TM games since the release of TMU. They still (initially, at least) used software from Starforce for encrypting the executable in TMU, but that software is NOT the Starforce software that so many people have had problems with.

I believe that the original TMN also did not install Starforce drivers IF your system was free of them, although it did update them on your system if you already had them installed from another game.

Now, it would appear that Nadeo are no longer using ANY Starforce software at all in their TM games from this point (TMUF and TMNF) forward (which is probably a good move, given all the confusion and bad publicity surrounding the Starforce company).

Is there a rule that the price of software can't increase? The Forever games have been under development for about 16 months. I think that ups the value of the package. Why didn't they charge players who already had United? Because part of the reason for the Forever version was to allow all players to play together, and they wanted a large customer base right from day one.

Well Steam hasn't changed their price, and on the Trackmania site, they list the full version as $39.95.

I really, really hate to say this, but I'm going to anyway: I'm going to pirate the fuck out of this. And you should, too.

There is no excuse for the same content being $30 one day and $40 the next. There was no sale. There was no warning of the price going up. Nothing at all. Someone is greedy, plain and simple.

I own the original trackmania, trackmania sunrise, and was more than ready to put down $30 for what looked like a great deal.

I have not pirated a single piece of software since 1999 - there came a point in my life where I decided that people that work on games were getting raped enough as it was, and I should support games I enjoy. Which I have done, over and over again. I'm championed the independent dev, and encouraged others to do the same. I've got 2 seasons of Sam and Max, and multiple purchases from Stardock. And my Steam games list is a mile long.

I've supported these devs because they make a great product, and they treat their customers well. Unlike what's happened here. There's no excuse for the bullshit that's been pulled.

So if you haven’t tried the trackmania series, take it from someone who has: now’s a great time to pirate this game. I am!

When you do this, know that it's risky to buy trackmania via someone on places like e-bay because when you buy secondhand you risk buying from someone who didn't think about including their key and accountname+password.